What are the best Social Media Optimization (SMO) practices for industrial manufacturers?

As we have written in previous articles, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for job shops involves optimizing your company’s website and overall online presence to rank higher in search engine results for relevant keywords and phrases. Our most recent SEO article briefly mentions Social Media Optimization (SMO). However, what is Social Media Optimization (SMO)? What are the best SMO practices for industrial manufacturers?  

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is an essential aspect of digital marketing for industrial manufacturers. It can help increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, and help you better engage with your target engineering audience.

Here are 12 of the best, most current practices for industrial SMO:

  1. Identify & Utilize the Right Platforms: Determine which social media platforms are most relevant to your target engineering audience and focus your efforts on those platforms. For most industrial companies, we suggest you focus most of your social efforts on LinkedIN and YouTUBE.
  2. Create a Consistent Brand Image: No matter which platforms you select or how many, develop a consistent visual brand image across all platforms to increase brand recognition. Your social presence should mirror your company’s website for a unified online feel.
  3. Develop an Engaging Social Media Presence with Valuable Content: Utilize all relevant social media platforms to create an engaging presence. Post interesting, relevant, and valuable content, target audience and industry, regularly to keep followers engaged. You can certainly post the same content across your social platforms; just be sure that the content is valuable to your target customers.
  4. Post Mainly Visual Content: Use effective visual content such as images, videos, and infographics to grab the attention of your engineering audience, get them focused on your industrial products and services, and make your content more engaging. A good visual will do much more for your social post than text alone.
  5. Use Appropriate Hashtags: Hashtags are similar to keywords. They are used in SMO to increase the visibility and discoverability of content posted on social media platforms. When users click on a hashtag, they are taken to a page that displays all public posts that have used it. This allows users to quickly and easily discover content relevant to their interests, and for businesses, it provides a way to reach a wider audience.
  6. Engage with Your Audience: Respond quickly to comments and messages and actively engage with your audience to build a relationship with them.
  7. Leverage User-Generated Content: Encourage your customers and followers to share their experiences with your industrial products and services on their social media pages. This will help to build trust and credibility in your brand. Make and share a hashtag specific to your company to help track these posts.
  8. Advertise on Social Platforms: Use social media advertising to promote your products and services to a larger audience. This can be through PPC ads on the social platform or by boosting popular posts.
  9. Focus on & Participate in Industry Events Posts: Participate in conversations through industry events and conferences you are participating in on their social platforms. Also, use your social media pages to promote your presence and share event updates and highlights. Check with the event webpage or your event contact for any event-specific hashtags you can use with your posts.
  10. Participate in Non-Event-Related Industry Discussions: Participate in industry-related conversations and discussions to establish yourself as an industry expert. This goes hand in hand with #6 above; social media is about communication and connection. You need to participate in discussions actively.
  11. Collaborate with Influencers: Word of mouth is still potent in advertising. Partner with relevant influencers in your industry to reach a larger audience and gain more credibility. If you don’t think an influencer is a good idea, try getting people you know (partners, customers, employees, etc.) to post about your company. These posts don’t have to sell per-say, the goal is to bring awareness to your company and your products and services in a positive way.
  12. Measure and Analyze Performance: Use social media analytics tools to track the performance of your social media campaigns and identify areas for improvement. You absolutely must track how your posts and activities are doing so that you can adjust your strategy for better engagement.

By implementing these Social Media Optimization (SMO) practices, industrial manufacturers can increase their visibility and engagement on social media, ultimately driving more website traffic and boosting sales.

All industrial – all the time!

With over 30 years of experience, The Rico Group specializes in helping industrial manufacturers and job shops grow their businesses and diversify their customer base. We are your bolt-on marketing department. Our solutions give you the full capabilities of an in-house marketing department at a fraction of what it would cost you to hire a full-time marketing crew. We know how engineers think and what they are looking for. We know your processes, equipment, and materials. We also know that you have very little time to take away from your production and getting your customer’s orders delivered.

Are you interested in seeing what your current digital marketing efforts are doing for your company? We offer a free comprehensive analysis of your company’s online marketing to give you insights into your digital footprint and how you can improve it. The report also comes with an in-depth competitor analysis and a free expert consultation to review the information with you and answer any questions you may have.

Also, please grab a free copy of our comprehensive digital marketing success guide to help you accelerate your job shop’s growth. The guide walks you through generating more qualified leads for your industrial manufacturing company.

Our industrial clients swear by our strategies – because they work.

Grow your manufacturing business with better marketing with The Rico Group.

www.thericogroup.com

 (805) 497-7401